Bejan Matur – English

Objection to the motherhood myth and religious belief

Bejan Matur – a kurdish poet, born 1968 in Maraş in the southeast of Turkey. She is the most illustrious poet among bold new women’s poetry emerging from the Middle East. Her poetic style differs markedly from that of her contemporaries and from the prevailing traditions and modes of expressions of the Turkish literary scene. Her poetry engages directly and concretely with the struggles of her people and yet there is also a mysticism in her writing, a closeness to nature, an embraceness of mythology, a dialogue with God. She speaks with curious combination of passionate engagement and etherial quality. As befits her poetry: the rock of ages, the sources of rivers, the counsel of ancestors are as much a part of the cast as she is.

Her poems are strongly influenced by the traditions of women. She tries to change the submissiveness of the woman in to a strong woman character and thus give raise of two modalities of speech granted to the women – first one is the silence and the other one is the mimicry.

In Matur’s poetry the Mother have a special place for remembrence.The good mother archetype is presented as the provider of peace and harmony and is reflected on water. Water is known as source of life, it purifies, fertilizes and blesses and at the same time can be controversial because the same water can have negative role and may have evil side. The ideal and demonic sides of motherhood can work together as a subversive touch to the patriarchy. Her poetry can also be seen as an objection to the motherhood myth and religious belief.

According to Bejan Matur Mothers are creating the basic fundaments for orderly life.

During recent years Bejan Matur started to write in Kurdish and in the context of this Black Island Books, a Swedish based publishing house, proudly can present her poetry collection Son Dağ (2015) in a Swedish and Kurdish version: Det sista berget respective Çiyayê Dawîn.

Son Dağ is translated into Swedish by Turkish writer and translator Tuhan Kayaoğlu.

Son Dağ is translated from the Swedish version into Kurdish by a group of Kurdish translators living in Sweden.